A blow molding machine is used in particular for the stretch-blow molding of preforms. As a result of the stretch-blow molding of the preforms, liquid containers, for example bottles, are produced. The blow molding machine itself comprises a plurality of blow molds, each blow mold being seated in a mold carrier. For the stretch-blow molding of preforms for plastic bottles, use is made of blow molds in which a preform is mold-blown, i.e., contoured, using gauge pressure in the interior of the blow mold. The blow mold consists at least of two blow mold halves which are held in the mold carrier. In this case, the mold carrier comprises two mold carrier halves which are mounted such that they can pivot around a common axis. By pivoting around this axis, the mold carrier halves can be opened and closed. A preform can be inserted into the open mold carrier halves and thus also into the open blow mold, and a mold-blown bottle can respectively be removed from the open blow mold. The configuration of such a mold carrier is disclosed for example in the European Patent No. EP 1 276 598 B1.
During the phase of transferring the preform to the mold carrier of the blow molding machine and correspondingly during the phase of removing the bottle, the preform or the container is guided along a transfer section (escort section). During transfer, usually a transfer device grips at least part of the neck region of the preform. The transfer section thus leads both along part of the circumference of the blow molding machine and also along part of the circumference of an adjoining processing device arranged upstream or downstream. In this way, the preform is moved from a polar coordinate system of the processing device into a different polar coordinate system of the blow molding machine, or the preform is moved from the polar coordinate system of the blow molding machine into the polar coordinate system of the processing device.
During transfer or removal, the movement direction of the preform sometimes differs considerably from that of the blow molding machine or of the processing device. As a result, at an ideally constant high speed, the preform is exposed to high loads which may lead to damage on the preform. The reliable transfer of the preform can also be put at risk by significant changes to the movement direction of the preform. The same also applies to removal of the liquid containers. However, the requirements in terms of productivity and thus in terms of the speed at which the preforms or liquid containers are to be processed are increasing, and therefore the abovementioned problems are becoming more pronounced.
German Patent Application No. DE 10 2005 008 685 A1 discloses a method and an apparatus for the blow molding of containers, which support a compact construction. Preforms are heated in the region of a heating section. The heated preforms are then transferred to a rotating blowing wheel, on which they are shaped by stretch-blow molding within blow molds to form the containers. The preforms are transported from the heating section until they are a small distance away from the blowing wheel. In a transfer region of the preforms from the heating section to the blowing wheel, the heating section is at a small distance from the blowing wheel. At least one transfer device is used for directly transferring the preforms from the heating section to the blowing wheel. A transfer of the preforms is therefore carried out directly from the heating section to the blowing wheel, without using a transfer starwheel, handover wheel or other suitable transfer means arranged movably between the heating device for heating the preforms and the blowing wheel for stretch-blow molding the preforms to form the containers. The transfer device preferably comprises a gripper device which moves the preform from the heating section to the blowing wheel and/or moves the container produced from the preform to a transfer wheel for outputting the container.
German Patent Application No. DE 199 06 438 A1 discloses a method and an apparatus for transferring containers after blow molding the containers from a thermoplastic material. After blow molding, the blown containers are fed by an output wheel to an output section having at least two separate transport paths. The containers are fed one after the other to the output wheel in the circumferential direction of the output wheel. The containers are introduced into the output section after carrying out a pivoting movement in the radial direction relative to a center point of the output wheel essentially with containers arranged next to one another. The output wheel has at least one holding element for simultaneously holding at least two blown containers. The holding elements are arranged so that their position can vary relative to the output wheel in such a way that holders of the holding element for the containers are arranged one behind the other in the circumferential direction of the output wheel during input of the containers and are arranged next to one another in the circumferential direction during output of the containers. In the region of the output wheel, by virtue of the invention it is possible to handle the blown containers with high reliability and at high speed.